[Vision2020] A quick rant about the term "metadata"

[Scott Dredge]

Companies having been selling data for eons to anyone willing to pay for it.  And lots of times these companies will allow you to pay a premium to keep your data more secure.    For instance, for $5 per month, you can get an unlisted Verizon phone number:
http://hothardware.com/News/Verizon-Claims-5-Monthly-Fee-Necessary-For-Unlisted-Number/

One question I have for you is that since Yahoo a full month ago started scanning & analyzing emails for ad targeting, why aren't you bugged by that?  Is it because it's a free service and if you were concerned about them rooting through your emails, you'd switch and pay for a premium account that doesn't do that sort of thing?

I'll concede that ad targeting is less disconcerting than the thought of the big, bad, dangerous almighty government tracking you and the lines for limiting their power are (or will be) drawn for them by lawmakers and the Constitution (or whatever tatters are left of it as Sunil points out).

-Scott

Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2013 12:33:20 -0700
From: godshatter at yahoo.com
To: scooterd408 at hotmail.com
CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] A quick rant about the term "metadata"


  
    
  
  
    

      It's OK if they pay for it, but not if they force them to give it
      over?  Are you OK with all the companies we do business with
      selling all our data to the government, or do you draw a line
      somewhere?

      

      Paul

      

      On 07/04/2013 10:08 AM, Scott Dredge wrote:

    
    
      
      
        The term 'metadata' bugs you.  What bugs me is that this 'valuable data' is being sucked
up by the NSA 'wholesale' instead of the telcos charging them a pretty penny for it.
The whole mess seems to be creating a lot of bugging.

-Scott


Paul wrote:

As a computer science guy, this bugs me.
 
I've seen the term "metadata" abused in the news media and online often 
in relation to phone data the NSA is sucking up wholesale.
 
"Metadata", as the media is using the term, *is* data.  Things like 
phone numbers, dates, times, duration of calls, cell phone tower 
identifiers, etc *is* data.
 
The term "metadata" has a specific meaning, it's data about data. For 
example, metadata on the data that Verizon was forced to give over would 
look something like this:
 
Field                     Data Type  Size  Comment
Originating Phone Number  NUMBER     10
Called Number             NUMBER     10
Call Duration             NUMBER     4      Length of call in seconds
Date of Call              CHAR       10     Date format: MM/DD/YYYY
Time of Call              CHAR       12     Time format: HH24:MI:SS.nnn
...
 
And so on.  I couldn't care less if they grabbed the metadata from all 
the phone carriers.  It would be a bunch of database table descriptions.
 
Don't kid yourself, what they grabbed from the telcos was actual data, 
and valuable data at that.
 
Paul
 
      
    
    
 		 	   		  
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